Luke 14:7-24: Too Busy Washing Your Hair?

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 29 March 2015, Palm Sunday by Captain Michael Ramsay

Today is Palm Sunday. We have already sung and had explained 'Palm Sunday Donkey Riding': the song Sarah-Grace wrote when she was only 9 years old.[1]

This song brings in the key elements of Palm Sunday that I am hoping to tie in with our weekly Boundless readings in the message today.[2]

Tomorrow, of course, we have our weekly Monday Night Meals and next week on Easter Sunday we have a pancake breakfast that the men will cook and in your bulletins you will notice a special multi-cultural meal that some of the ladies are hosting on April 26^th. Meals are important. Today, in our Scriptures, Jesus is at a meal and he is telling this story about how the Kingdom of God itself is like a meal.

Now this story is quite something and it is meant to be quite something. Jesus has been invited to a special meal and he has already openly condemned his fellow guests for taking all the good seats at the supper (Luke 14:7-11). One of the guests then calls out, Verse 15, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God” and then Jesus tells that person this story contained in Luke 14.

In the story there are many people who are invited to this banquet, which represents the Kingdom of God (v. 16). First the host sends out all these invitations and then on the actual day he even sends out one of his employees, his slave to collect everyone (v. 17).[3] It is at this last moment that - as the banquet is presumably already prepared based on the number of people who were invited and/or previously indicated that they would come - all of a sudden, all of these many people who have all been invited begin making excuses about why they can’t make it… and some of these excuses are laughable.

One person says, ‘I can’t come to the dinner anymore because… I just bought some land and must go and see it’. Who buys land sight unseen – especially then and there - and then decides all of a sudden that they have to see it on just that exact same day as the big banquet to which everyone has been invited?

Another person says, ‘I can’t come to the dinner anymore because… I just bought some oxen and must try them out.’ Really! You bought these oxen sight unseen and the only time you can try them out is the exact time when the feast that you’ve already known about and presumably previously acknowledged is occurring?

These are the first century equivalent of a girl being asked out on a date, saying ‘yes’ and then when the boy comes to pick her up she says. ‘I’m sorry I can’t come out tonight… I’m washing my hair’.

The third excuse offered in this story is not any better either.[4] They say, ‘Oh yes I’d love to come to the banquet… but I’ve just been married.’ Really? This was a surprise wedding, was it? You didn’t know that this was in the works when you were first invited? And besides the text here says that the wedding is over already. The invited guest could just bring his or her spouse - its not like seating is limited.[5] Jesus is making the point that lots of people were invited to this banquet, which is the Kingdom of God, and though they seemingly gave the impression that they were going to attend, once all the costs were incurred by the host and all the preparations were made by the host, all the people decided, ‘No, I’m going to stay home tonight and wash my hair.’

Imagine you are the host. You have spent all this money and all this time putting together this big banquet, you invite everyone you know. You expect them to all be there. You rent a number of cars to go pick them all up and all the chauffeurs come back empty, with no one in their car. How are you going to feel – all that time, all that money spent on all these supposed friends who then totally turn their backs on you with all of their lame excuses?

This is the way Jesus says God feels about His chosen people. He has gone to all this work for them and He correctly feels that they have totally rejected Him. ‘Sorry God, couldn’t make it to heaven, too busy washing our hair.’ ‘I would have like to join your Kingdom but I have to sort my sock drawer tonight…maybe next time.’ This is how Jesus says God’s chosen people are responding to His invitation to Salvation.[6]

So how does God respond? How does the host respond? How would you respond if you made this big feast and no one you were expecting to come showed up and no one had a good reason; no one could be bothered… or worse? The host is angry, it says: no kidding.

He then instructs his staff, Verse 21, to go out into the streets and invite everyone in the streets and more. He says, 'invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame… .' He does this and the outcasts of society come in from the streets for a free meal but there is still room.[7] There is still lots of food and the host, God, doesn’t want His free gift here to go to waste so He sends His staff member out again and He tells him to go down the back alleys, find the street people there and compel them, force them to come to this free fancy feast – which of course is eternal life. Jesus then tells this person and anyone else listening to this parable about the chosen people, Jesus says, Verse 24 ‘for I tell you, none of those who were invited will enjoy my feast.’

About the Kingdom of God and the chosen people, Jesus says: ‘…I tell you, none of those who were invited will enjoy my feast.’ How does this apply to us today and how does this apply to Palm Sunday? Sarah-Grace’s video showed us the importance of Palm Sunday. Here was Jesus riding into the capital city of an occupied country, received as a revolutionary leader, a liberator. People have come from all over the occupied territories to the historic capital of the Kingdom of Judah and they are flocking en masse to greet Jesus, waving nationalist symbols and shouting ‘Hosanna! Save us! Save us!’

We remember that the privileged Jewish leaders: the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests don’t want this! They are plotting to kill him. Jesus is seen as a threat not as much by the Romans as by the chosen religious and political leaders of his own people. It is the leaders of the chosen people who not only reject Jesus’ invitation to eternal life in the Kingdom of God but who are hoping to prevent the establishment of the Kingdom in the first place by assassinating him or –better yet- having the Romans execute him for them. Jesus is saying that as the Jewish leaders reject this invitation to join God’s Kingdom, they will not experience it. If they reject salvation they will not experience it.

To explain one parable with another, the Kingdom of God, this feast is like a boat coming by during a flood. The people in the flood have the choice to either climb onboard the boat or to die and the chosen people here decide that they would rather die then get on a boat captained by Jesus Christ. It is the only boat coming and the only way they can be saved from the overwhelming flood - but they decide that they would rather die than place their lives in Jesus’ hands. This is what Jesus, in Luke's account of this parable, is saying.

Well, how about us? We have all been invited to the feast. The boat has come to pick us up. It is the only boat coming. The waters are rising and the only way to avoid destruction, the only way to salvation is to climb aboard that boat piloted by Jesus.

On Palm Sunday, people laid their coats at the feet of Jesus’ donkey and they waved their branches before Jesus, calling out  ‘Hosanna’ ‘Save us’, ‘Save us!’

Now all of humanity is standing on the metaphorical roof of our homes as the flood waters are rising and the last boat is coming. Let us not let our salvation pass us by. Jesus promises that indeed as we call on him to 'save us, save us', he will. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave so that none of us need to perish; so today if there are any of us who have not yet called upon the Name of the Lord, it is my prayer that we will book our seat at the eternal feast, that we will board the boat of eternal salvation, that we will call on the Name of the Lord and experience His Salvation both now and forever more.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Sarah-Grace Ramsay, Luke 19:24-40 Palm Sunday Donkey Riding. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 31 March 2012. On-line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i0N2OSlOBck

[2] Major Beverly Ivany and Major Phil Layton BOUNDLESS - THE WHOLE WORLD READING. On-line: http://www.salvationarmy.org/biblechallenge

[3] cf. Leon Morris,  Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 251

[4] Cf. N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: WJK, 2004)

[5] Cf. Walter L. Leifeld The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/V. Teaching and Travels Toward Jerusalem (9:51-19:44)/E. Further Teaching on Urgent Issues (14:1-18:30)/2. Parable of the great banquet (14:15-24), Book Version: 4.0.2 and Jeremiah Parables of Jesus p. 177: it is possible that only men were invited but nonetheless the marriage does not diminish the person’s ability to attend the feast.

[6] But cf. Paul John Issac, ‘Luke 14:15-24’  in Africa Bible Commentary, Editor, Tokunboh Adeyemo, (WordAlive Publishers: Nairobi, Kenya., 2010), p.1259. “…the future is determined by our present response and the rich have excluded themselves.”

[7] R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 290 quotes Vachel Linday’s ‘General William Booth Enters Heaven’ here:

Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,

Lurching bravoes from ditches dank,

Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,

Unwashed legions from the ways of death.

Week 26: Galatians 3:24: Freedom

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 26 March 2015

Read Galatians 3:23-26

The Galatians are at risk of being trapped again by the Law. Paul is desperately, in this letter, trying to point them to freedom.

This raises a question: If the Law is something that traps us, why did God give us the Law? Why were God’s people expected to follow it for hundreds of years? Did God want to trap us?

Paul speaks of people being imprisoned and guarded by the Law. He says that the Law was our disciplinarian, our custodian, or some translations even say our schoolmaster. This is interesting because the word in vv. 24-25 that is translated these different ways probably can best be rendered ‘tutor’ and tutors –unlike guards or disciplinarians- were not considered bad people in Galatia. They were good guys: servants protecting, teaching and helping children.

I look at the historical role of the Law like a storm cellar. It is a place to hide in a storm. When Sin entered the world like a tornado bringing death and destruction to everything in its path, the Law was given to us for protection (3:19, cf. Ro 5:20).

People were dying in this storm so God built this storm cellar of the Law for our protection. He gives it to Moses and says, “In there, take everyone. Quick. Hurry!”

Moses does and people remain in this safe, albeit somewhat cramped and confining, shelter for a long time and then something happens… Jesus, through His death and resurrection, defeats Sin. He calms the storm. It is finished.

The storm is over; Jesus freed us from the cellar of the Law. It kept us safe during the storm but it is of no use now that Sin and Death have been defeated. Jesus rose from the dead offering us new life so let’s leave the storm cellar now and experience the freedom of life with Christ.

With that in mind, I have another question: are there times when, like the Galatians, we are tempted to return to the confines of the Law or a contemporary equivalent? Are their ways in which, even though life is carrying on outside the storm cellar, we refuse to walk in the freedom of Christ? What are some of the rules, special days, and traditions which we have that can – like the Law or a storm cellar - cut us off from our freedom in Christ (4:10)?

www.sheepspeak.com 

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Galatians 3:19-25: Don't be a McChicken, Presented to Nipawin Corps of The Salvation Army on 20 Jan 2008, Tisdale on 27 Jan 2008,and Swift Current on 26 Aug 2011 On-line: 

http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/01/galatians-319-25-dont-be-mcchicken.html

Week 25: Romans 13:14: Victory

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 19 March 2015. Also presented to the Alberni Valley Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Saturday 09 February 2019.

Read Romans 13:11-14

The year we moved to Saskatchewan the Riders won the Grey Cup. In the final seconds of the game you could see the excitement on the players’ faces. They knew the game had been won but it wasn’t over yet. Time still needed to run down. They wanted to celebrate: the game was won but it wasn’t over.

Similarly Romans 13:11-12, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here....”

Paul speaks about our salvation that is near. Elsewhere Paul speaks about the ‘day of salvation’ that has already arrived. How can our salvation be both now and still to come? How can it be both near and here already? This is important: our Salvation was achieved when Jesus died and won the victory through rising from the dead (cf. 2 Cor 6:2, 1 Cor 15:2, Eph 2:8,1 Pt 1). Christ won the victory then but the final reward of Salvation is yet to come. The game is won but the final whistle has not been blown and the Great Cup is still to be presented.

Like our Roughriders game: when the QB went down on one knee to run out the clock there was no way they could be defeated. The fans were already victors with the team. When Christ died and rose from the grave, it was like Jesus ran for the touchdown that put the game out of reach. There is no way now that sin and death can ever come back and win the game but the final whistle hasn’t blown.

This is what Paul is speaking about: Salvation as if it were that final whistle. The Riders had won the game with 20 seconds left but they did not get to hold the Cup until the whistle blew. Jesus won the victory between the cross and the empty tomb but the final whistle hasn’t blown.

The game has been won, the foe has been defeated; therefore for us to be engaged in serving ourselves instead of serving God now would be like if in the last seconds of play one of the Roughriders switched jerseys to join the other team; why when the victory is already won would anyone forfeit their prize before it is awarded? Why would we want to reject our salvation now that it is won?

Today Sin is defeated. Death is dead and the darkness is fading so let us go and sin no more so that we may hoist that Great Cup with Jesus Christ who has already won us the victory.

Questions for today: As Christ has already won the victory are we playing for his team? If not, how can we be clothed today in his jersey of eternal salvation?

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay Victory: The Final Whistle (Romans 13:11-14)! Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 16 August. 2019 and Nipawin and Tisdale 02 December 2007. On-line:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/12/victory-final-whistle-romans-1311-14.html

Week 24: Romans 10:13: Action

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 12 March 2015

Read Romans 10:9-13

Paul says these three things sum up how Christians live the Gospel. We, 1) say it: Romans 10:9: “…confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and 2) know it: “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead...” And, 3) we do it: Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” When we accept God’s gift of salvation, we will say it, know it and do it!

1) Say it! Romans 10:9: “…confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord…’” This is important. You say you have a personal relationship with Christ. This is great and if it is true you will tell people about him. When you are married for instance, even without thinking about it, your spouse comes up in conversation. No one knows you for twenty years and then exclaims, ‘I didn’t know you were married’ so why is it that way for some people with Christ?

2) Know it! Believe in Jesus’ resurrection: It is important to proclaim the gospel but that is not the end of it. Speaking is one thing but believing is quite another. If you have any doubt about that, think about the general reputation (accurate or not) of elected politicians – speaking is one thing, believing what is said is quite another. Yes, we need to tell people about Christ but we also have to believe in Him.

3) Do it! Call on the Name of the Lord. This is important. Saying it is good. Knowing it is better. Doing it is imperative. Matthew paints this picture quite vividly. Matthew 25 records the parable of the sheep and goats. Here there are two groups. Both groups 1) say and 2) know that Jesus is Lord. But it is only the sheep that do anything about it. As a result, only the sheep are saved. The goats are not. Matthew 7:21 is quite clear: Jesus says “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven”: Say it! Know it! Do it!

In summary, when we are in a relationship with the Lord we will 1) say it: confess with our mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and 2) know it: believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead and, 3) we will do it: because everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.

In our lives, pertaining to salvation and our relationship with Jesus, in what ways do we say it, know it, and do it! And our there any ways we can do this more or more effectively?

www.sheepspeak.com

 

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 10:9&13: Say it! Know it! Do it! Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 11 Sept. 2011. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/romans-109-say-it-know-it-do-it.html

Mark 11:27-12:12 (Mt 21:31-46): Tenant Farmers.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 08 March 2015, 25 July 2010; Nipawin 21 June 2009; and Warehouse Mission 614 in Toronto, 20 May, 2018; by Captain Michael Ramsay

To read the 2009 sermon on Matthew 21:31-46, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/06/matthew-2133-46-john-31617-tenant.html

To read the 2018 sermon, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/05/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-resentful.html

When Sarah-Grace was about Heather’s age now (4), she played soccer in a league up in Nipawin and Tisdale where we lived and I was one of her coaches. We actually won the whole tournament one year. It was good. I think of my role, when I am coaching, as more of an encourager than a coach per sae. I like to try to rally the troops and cheer the team on - celebrate their successes with them. I find myself often calling out from the sidelines ‘Go so-and-so go!’ ‘Go score a goal!’ or ‘pass to so-and-so, she’s open’ or more commonly, ‘Goalie wake up!’ ‘Goalie, don’t lie on the ground!’ or ‘Goalie, stop talking to your friend and untangle yourself from the net – the ball is coming’… encouragements like that.

I remember this one game. Sarah-Grace made an excellent header. The ball came right to her and she headed it to her teammate – that was really quite something, particularly at this age, so at the break I complimented her on her head ball and she, in front all the parents, told me her secret. She said, ‘Dad, you know how I did the head ball? …I saw the ball coming to me but I forgot to move out of the way’. I like being a dad. It is a lot of fun. And being a coach of your kids’ teams can be fun and it can be a bit of work too.

Here in Mark (cf. Mt 21:31b-46, Lk 20:1-19) we read about an employer who, as Jesus tells us, has a bit of a challenging team working for him. This businessman is in the grape business. He is farmer of sorts and it is recorded in Mark 12:1 that he put a bit of work into his farm. (He must love it!) It says that he plants his vineyard, he puts a wall around it, he builds a pit for a wine press, and he even builds a watchtower (cf. Isa 5:1-7 and Ps 80:6-16). It sounds like it is a pretty good setup that he has here. It says here that he could even afford to go on vacation or a family trip or a business trip of some sort; it says that he had enough time and money that he could leave the vineyard. This is pretty good especially remembering that all this is happening in first century Palestine. It says that he could afford to go away and hire the fields out to some tenant farmers not unlike a number of people who do that in this area today.

Now the absentee landlord’s fields, his vines, are doing pretty well. He is still away doing whatever he is doing – sitting in his big corporate office or on the beach in Florida, Texas or in Arizona or wherever it is that the rich farmers spend their time when they aren’t at home. The landlord is away and it is time to collect his rent. The harvest is in and he wants his cut. He wants his share so he sends some of his employees up from the big city – briefcases, laptops, and calculators in hand (okay their were neither briefcases and laptops nor calculators then) – to collect the rent and it says in Verses 3-5 that the tenant farmers, the fruit pickers, the contractors working the land, want to renegotiate their contract or something like that…it says in Verse 4-5 that they seize his employees, they grab his servants and they beat some slaves severely, wound others and they even kill some. These farmers aren’t very nice to the landlord’s employees at all.

Now when the landlord hears about all this, what does he do? Well, what would you do? What would you do if you rented out your land for a season so that you could head down south and you send some property management company to go get the rent and they are beaten and killed? What are you going to do? Call the RCMP, right? Get the authorities. You’re going to want to do something!

What does the landlord do? This landlord just keeps sending more servants (12:5). Now I don’t know how keen I would be to head out to collect the rent after hearing what had happened to the others. Nonetheless the employees are good and the employees. The Landlord sends more and more of them to get the rent from these tenant farmers and just like their predecessors, they are l met with resistance, beatings, and death.

I don’t know about you but if I were the employer I would be getting quite upset right now. I have been a landlord before. I know what it is like when your tenants try to pull the ‘midnight move’. I know what it is like when they don’t want to pay their rent. I also used to be a magazine publisher and I know what it is like when your clients give your employees a really bad time and don’t want to pay them – It isn’t good. After all, good help isn’t all that easy to come by – and in our story today the tenant farmers are even killing them off. So what does the landlord do? Does he call the residential tenancy board? Does he call the American ATF or an ERT (SWAT) team to storm the compound? Does he act like a US President and order a drone attack on the vineyard or an air strike on their families? This landlord is a powerful landlord. He can do the ancient equivalent to all that. He can literally have their heads but what does he do?

Remember that Jesus, God’s son, is telling the story. We read that this landlord is a loving father who has absolute faith in the ability of his son. Verse 6: he says, ‘they will respect my son.’ They don’t. The tenant farmers don’t respect his son. Verse 7: “But the tenants said to one another ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” Verse 8, “So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.”

Jesus stops the story here and he asks those listening to the story, Verse 9, “‘what then will the owner of the vineyard do?’ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others” He will kill the tenants and give the land to others who will pay the rent and will give him what is due.

Jesus is telling this parable to the Jewish leaders who are in the crowd he is addressing, Mark 11:27: The chief priest, the teachers of the law and the elders of the people - and Matthew 21:41: the Pharisees - have all asked Jesus upon what authority he is doing his ministry.[1] This parable is part of his answer and he tells the elders and he tells the chief priests and he tells the Pharisees who are present  – The Matthew version of this story is quite specific – he tells them plainly 21:43 “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who would produce its fruit.” Mark 12:12, “Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.”[2]

They knew what he was talking about. Do we know what he is talking about? God, the landlord, sends his prophets, the servants, to check up on the tenants and how they are doing at looking after his vineyard and -as we know- the Israelites and their leaders stoned and even killed many of the prophets of God (cf. 1 Ki 18:4, 13; Jer 26:20-23; 2 Chr 24:21-22; and Matt 23:37; Heb 11:37). God, the landlord, then sends his own son to the people chosen to tend his vineyard and the Israelites and their leaders kill him and because they kill him, those who reject the landlord and his son, those who reject Jesus die outside of the vineyard and the vineyard is given to others.[3]

You and I here today, how are we doing with what God is entrusting us?[4]  Do we heed his servants when they are sent with messages or to collect our rent? What do we do when Jesus shows up to tell us what we need to do? Do we obey him? Do we pay our rent?

This is an important question. Jesus is the ultimate authority. He is God’s only begotten son who was killed (and raised from the dead) and if we reject him like many leaders and other Judeans in the first century, we will not have the blessing of remaining in the eternal vineyard; we will die. As this is the case, let us make sure that we submit to our master, that we serve him faithfully now and forever.

There is even more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that God knows that Jesus is going to die before he ever sends him into the world (Cf. Jn 3,15). We know that Jesus’ death is necessary so that anyone can live and have eternal life. We know that He chooses to send His son to die so that we can live. Still some will hear even this story and instead of concentrating on the authority of Jesus and the sacrifice of God they will fixate on the fact that God punishes these farmers and ask how come there is so much death? How come God punishes some people? In our world today we often hear the question, how can a supposedly loving God arbitrarily punish people and even condemn some to Hell?”

He doesn’t. Listen carefully to what I am saying here… Jesus doesn’t condemn people to Hell (Jn 3:17). Hell is real but Jesus does not send people there. Those who are going there, like the tenant farmers in our story today who lose their lives and our removed from the vineyard, they make that decision all on their own. Those who stand condemned, condemn themselves by denying (like the Apostle Paul makes clear in Romans 1 and 2) what is plainly obvious to everyone.[5] I truly believe that God gives us all we need to know in this life from our experiences and even creation itself (cf. Ro 1:18-24) just like he sent more and more servants to give the tenants more and more opportunities to repent and submit to His authority and indeed there will actually still be a time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Ro 14:11, Phil 2:10) and then some, some who believe in the Lord and obey His commandments will spend eternity with Him in His vineyard and some, some who deny Christ (Mt 10:33) and do not obey His commandments (Jn 14:15), some who simply refuse His love will go off to the hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 25:31ff). This is sad.

This is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. John 3:16 says that He loves the entire ‘Kosmos’. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us (Jn 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live.

I can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I am a father. Many of us are parents here. Can you imagine if you send your son and he dies to save others but still they decide to perish anyway?

God sent His Son and His Son died so that we may live but yet some still refuse His love and some still reject His Salvation. God sent Jesus not to condemn us (Jn 3:17) but to save us but some of us refuse to obey Him. Some of us simply refuse to be saved. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own accord because, John 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”

So today we are in the vineyard of that parable that Jesus told 2000 years ago. We are in the privileged position of knowing the truth that the religious leaders of Jesus day were. We have access to the light. We have knowledge of our salvation; so, I ask us in our own lives, when Jesus comes back, when God returns to the vineyard will we experience the same fate as the tenant farmers, those religious leaders in Jesus’ day? Will we experience the same fate of those who chose to perish by serving themselves instead of God or will we accept salvation that Jesus provided and live our life tending to in his perfect vineyard. He is even now standing at the gate. It is time for us to decide. What will we do? Will we attack, deny, or ignore Him and die; or will we meet him with open arms and live? It is time to decide.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com 

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[1] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 409: “by adding two additional parables [he incorporates] the woes into the full-blown speech (23:1-25:46).”  This parable is not meant to stand in isolation.

[2] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28. (WBC 33B: Dallas, Texas: Word Books, 1995), 612. The purpose of this series of parables then is “the depiction of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders. It is for this reason Jesus asks the Jewish leaders for their opinion concerning which of these two sons was the faithful one.” The religious leaders’ response in the affirmative to Jesus question is then, through typically parabolic procedure, a self-indictment.

[3] Cf. NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2,” Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D. G. Dunn (WUNT 89; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996), republished with English translations of German essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001): 136. The equality of the Gentile to the Jew before God, as expressed by Paul in Romans in no way negates the primacy of the Jews (cf. Romans 11:7, 11). Cf. Romans 11:12-13, where it is recorded that it was only “through their stumbling [that] salvation has come to the Gentiles…Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!.”

[4] It is important to note as Douglas J. Moo does that, “contrary to popular Jewish belief, the sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly different from those of the Gentiles.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440

[5] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Paul and the Human Condition as Reflected in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16”. Available on-line at: http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition

Week 23: Romans 9:30: Righteousness

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 05 March 2015.
Presented to the River Street Cafe, Toronto, 03 June 2016.

Read Romans 9:30-33

Remember the classic story, Alice through the Looking Glass? At one point there are two groups of people: those determined to reach a goal and those who are not. Those determined to reach the goal, walk towards a mirror where it is reflected but – of course – they never reach it because its not there; only the reflection is there. The ones, however, who turn (repent) and walk in the opposite direction are the one’s who actually find it.

We can never grab an image in the mirror because it is not a real item: it is just a reflection. This is like the Law and Israel: the Law is a reflection of God (cf. Wright, Romans, 649). It is not God and as long as one is reaching for this reflection, one can never grasp God. As long as you are reaching for his reflection rather than for Jesus - even though he is right beside you – you will never reach him.

I think sometimes in our churches we make this mistake. I think sometimes we can be tempted to believe that if we come to church and sing some songs we’ll be saved. Do we sometimes think that if we don’t swear, drink, smoke, gamble or whatever else we don’t do than we’ll be okay? Are we fooled into believing that if we are nice, don’t hurt anyone, and are likable than we deserve to go to heaven?

Well if any of us are hoping to get to God by being liked, being nice, or by our own righteousness; then we will be disappointed because personality, good works, and our own righteousness are nothing more than grasping at an image in the mirror.

Now there is good news: Romans 9:33, those who do trust in Jesus, rather than his reflection, will never be disappointed. We don’t need to look at anything else; we don’t need to be deceived by a reflection. Jesus is standing with us and he will never leave us nor forsake us.

This is gospel: Jesus died, rose from the dead, is coming back and whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). This is what we notice when we stop looking in mirrors of our righteousness, rules, regulations, traditions and/or anything else. When we turn away from these and repent – the word repent means to turn – we will see Jesus and be saved. This is good news.

This is not to say that there aren’t good things about traditions and right behaviour; this is just to say quite simply that they won’t save us. So our questions for today: Are there ways in our own lives when we are tempted to ignore God and try to grasp an image, a rule maybe, or a ritual instead? Are there times when we, like first century Israel, rely on our righteousness and in the process actually turn our backs on God? And if so what can we do to turn (repent) and see Jesus?

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 9:30 –10:4: The Law through the Looking Glass. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Salvation Army, 04 May 2008 and Swift Current, 02 August 2009. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/05/romans-930-104-law-through-looking.html