A New Foundation

Luke 7:1-10

·         An interesting thing about Luke 7 is that it follows Luke 5 and 6 J

·         In Luke 5, as Jesus teaches and demonstrates his inclusive gospel of grace,  it is becoming increasingly clear that the new wine of the gospel can not be contained in the old wineskins of the Jewish religion and all that it has become under the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees.

·         Luke 6 starts with tension continuing to rise between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders – expressed in a dispute over what is lawful on the Sabbath.

·         The fury and plotting against Jesus grows and he responds by spending a whole night in prayer and then selecting and calling the 12 apostles, who are to be the patriarchs or pioneers of a new people of God who would convey his power and his love to the world.

·         He then preaches the Sermon on the Plain (not that kind of plane J), which is a shorter version of the more famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The Sermon is a manifesto for Christian living, a manual for discipleship.

The Sermon on the Plain

·         Those who aspire to be disciples need to love their enemies (6:27-36), and not just in a theoretical or sentimental fashion, but in a practical, radical and sometimes costly way. “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, Jesus tells them.

·         Disciples must not judge or condemn others (6:37-42). Their attitude to the faults of others must be governed by a humble attitude to their own faults and weaknesses. They are to forgive the trespasses of others and to give generously to meet their needs, following the example of their teacher and being fully trained in his ways.

·         Disciples are reminded that the goodness or badness of a tree will be demonstrated by the fruit that it bears (6:43-45). They are called to live in a way that is fruitful, a way which feeds health and spreads goodness, drawing on the good which is in their hearts.

·         Finally Jesus warns the disciples that it is not enough to call him “Lord, Lord”: they need to do what he says (6:46-49). Hearing the words of Jesus and putting them into practice is like being a man who builds his house on a firm foundation of rock. To merely hear his words without obeying them is to build without a foundation and to court disaster.

·         So we come to chapter 7 with the scene set for someone to demonstrate the kind of discipleship that Jesus has been describing. This example is immediately provided, not by Simon Peter or John or any of the 12, but by a most unexpected person; a Roman centurion; an officer in the enemy occupying army.

·         Even Jesus is amazed and encouraged by this man’s faith and applauds him as a wonderful example of the kind of discipleship he has just been calling for!

·         What was so interesting and exemplary about this man? What was it about him that Jesus and Luke found so exciting and encouraging?

The Centurion’s Qualities

·         The first interesting point is that the centurion was already living in pretty much exactly the way Jesus had set out in the Sermon on the Plain:

·         He is loving his enemies. The elders of the Jewish people tell Jesus “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” The synagogue referred to is the one in Capernaum, where Jesus had already preached and healed (Luke 4:31-37).

·         His compassion also extends to his household staff, to an unusual degree. When a slave or servant became sick and close to death in Roman society, they would no longer be of value and could expect to be disposed of like a lame animal.

·         This centurion is different. He highly values this slave/servant and is prepared to risk embarrassment in seeking his healing by the charismatic young Jewish rabbi he has been hearing about.

·         In spite of the power and authority of his position, the centurion is also humble, acknowledging his defects and unworthiness in Jewish eyes, not demanding and claiming not to deserve anything from Jesus (7:6).

·         The Jewish Elders (respected senior members of the community) DO think the centurion’s good works qualify him to receive Jesus’s attention “This man deserves to have you do this” (7:4), they tell Jesus.

·         We know that good works do not save us, however Jesus is not dismissive of the centurion’s case. He likes what he has heard about this man and is intrigued and compassionate enough to go along with the request. Perhaps he also senses a teaching opportunity for the Jewish Elders and his own disciples.

Amazing Faith

·         Before Jesus reaches the house, a message is brought to him by the centurion’s friends and it is this message which so impresses and encourages Jesus that he is amazed. It deserves to be read out in full:

·         “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he does it.” (Luke 7:6-8)

·         These are the words, or rather, this is the faith that amazed Jesus. It is a faith he has not found anywhere in Israel. Here is a man who not only calls Jesus ‘Lord’ but puts that belief into practice and recognises Jesus’s authority, not just over people but over sickness and death.

·         The remarkable thing which has happened here is that a new foundation of faith in Jesus, of belief in his saving power and authority, has been added to this man’s qualities – and it is this faith which he is commended for and which brings life instead of death to his servant. It is faith like this which provides a new wineskin fit to contain the new wine of the gospel of grace.

·         I’m reminded of the Las Arenas shopping mall in Barcelona – formally a bullring, a place of ritualised death as a form of entertainment, which was raised up in a remarkable feat of architecture and engineering and had a new foundation added as part of its transformation into, well, into a shopping mall and entertainment complex (I recognise the limitations of this parallel J).

Lessons for today’s church?

·         Outsiders may be forgiven for thinking the focus of Christianity is on following a set of legalistic rules. It isn’t! The important thing is living faithfully; putting our belief in the Lordship of Jesus into practice in every aspect of life.

·         That is what the Sermon on the Plain was all about and it is what Jesus saw and commended in the centurian.

·         What church can become (and this is how a lot of people see us) is a self righteous bunch of people who are convinced they have correct beliefs and are consequently superior to people who do not share these beliefs.

·         When this attitude prevails there is little priority for engaging with and serving the world in the way Jesus envisaged. Its the kind of religion the Pharisees had developed. An old wineskin which cannot contain the new wine of the gospel.

·         We all want to build a better world and as Christians we want that to be a world like the Kingdom of God, with the values Jesus expressed so passionately in the Sermon on the Plain.

·         And it’s tempting to look at the sorry mess society is in and decide to walk away and build somewhere else. Or to say this will have to be pulled down before we can build something better in its place.

·         But a third option is that we can be inspired by the vision and achievements of Richard Rogers and his team who transformed Las Arenas, and by the example of our centurion who added faith in Jesus to underpin the good life he was already living.

·         Instead of walking away from society or pulling it down we can give it a new foundation, by preaching and demonstrating a gospel of grace, reaching out to all people, including people of goodwill who don’t yet acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus.

·         Together we can lift this place to a new level – one that pleases God, one that is full of faith and one that brings joy and glory to Jesus.

Sermon - Luke 13:31-35 - Staying the Course

Luke 13:31-35

Last week we looked at the Testing of Jesus. This week’s reading, from his journey to Jerusalem, shows him behaving with integrity, commitment and complete reliance on his Father God; exactly as the Testing had suggested he would.

1.       The Pharisees warn him to run away from Herod Antipas (either genuinely concerned for J or colluding with HA) but he refuses to be distracted. Jesus is determined to complete the work he has come to do and will not be frightened off course by Herod or anyone else.

2.        It is not just getting there (to the fate which awaits Jesus in Jerusalem) that matters to him, but HOW he gets there – what he does on the way, i.e. healing people and freeing them from the grip of evil. This work is not just an incidental aspect of Jesus’s life, it flows naturally and irresistably from the core of his being.

3.       Jesus’ knowledge of what will happen to him makes him sad, not for himself but for Jerusalem. The city which will reject and kill him. The house of God (Temple) has become “your house” and is left desolate, empty. God is not now present in the building but in the PERSON of Jesus.

4.       The presence of God IN JESUS (cf 2 Corinthians 5:19) is the best way, I think, to make sense of J saying that he has often tried to embrace his people but they have repeatedly rejected his love. God’s people have lost sight of him and they will not see him again until they recognize God in Jesus and worship him, saying Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Application

1.       What distracts or frightens us off course in our Christian walk of discipleship and mission? How can the example and resources of Jesus help us stay the course?

We are not living in a part of the world where being known as a follower of Jesus will lead to threats or put us in physical danger. That’s very rare here (thank God).

A more realistic fear for us is to worry about being disliked or misunderstood. This might not sound too bad, but it can seem so bad that it paralyses us into inaction. Perhaps like the Jewish leaders who admired Jesus but were afraid of the Pharisees, we often love the approval of men (who we see every day) more than the approval of God (John 12.43) who is out of sight, out of mind?

This is a real threat to our discipleship and one we are unlikely to be able to deal with alone. It is one of the reasons we need church (its not an option). We need each other and we need to know and rely on each other more deeply. Building real relationships with each other (and of course with God). This is best done in smaller groups.

2.       Like Jesus, as people who are on the way it is not just where we hope to end up that matters but how we get there, what we do on the way. For the NT writers, especially Luke/Acts, the work of the disciple is the same as the work of the master – healing people and freeing them from the grip of evil. How does this relate this to our everday tasks and opportunities?

We may not often find ourselves in such dramatic confrontations with evil and sickness as Jesus and the disciples did, but, if we are looking for them, there are opportunities every day. For example we might offer practical help to somebody who is going through a trauma or who is trapped in difficult circumstances. It might not seem like much, but practical help can have more spiritual value than we realise. God is ever present and emotional support can bring healing.

3.       What about Jesus’s sorrow – God’s ongoing sorrow – at his rejection by Jerusalem, by the people who, more than anyone, should have recognised and treasured him? I say “him” but we have here the most beautiful feminine image of God as a hen who longs to cover and protect her chicks – although they reject her.

As we have already noticed, it is remarkable that Jesus’ sadness is for the ones who are doing the rejecting, not for himself. And this is challenging, because when you or I feel rejected, our sympathy is only usually with ourselves. What’s the answer? It would be easy for me to say ‘we just need to increase our passion for God and our love for others.’ Easy, but not very helpful.

More helpfully I would encourage you to admit to God “I actually can’t stand the sight of this person. God, I need a lot of help if I’m going to see this person as you see them, as a wayward child in need of love and healing.” That might be a hard prayer to pray, but maybe something in us needs to change first, before we are able to confront what is wrong in the other person.

I love the way that Jesus’s confrontation of his opponents is assertive and direct, yet at the same time full of compassion (v34). Our approach needs to be the same if we are to stand a chance of opening another person up to God.

4.       Which leads us to the final challenge. How can we turn people towards Jesus, to help them believe that “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”? Again the answer has to start with ourselves, inside us. We are so accustomed, even in the church, to making judgements about other people and seeing ourselves in a separate group or category.

Be honest, when you enter a room with people in it don’t you make assumptions about them (examples…)? Jesus could do this too and accurately because he could see inside a person’s heart. The difference being that Jesus doesn’t divide people up into the ones who deserve his attention and mercy and those who don’t. He has the same compassion for all people, he reaches out equally to all people, he opens the door of his kingdom to all people and he never gives up on anyone.

Final thoughts

As we continue to reflect on the hard road that Jesus followed to his destiny in Jerusalem, may we learn from the connections with our own faith journey. Church will not be optional because it is here that we help each other learn the teaching and values which will sustain us when the going is tough. Here we can receive and give support to help us on the way. And may we look for God in others and respond to God in others, so that all may be one, in the name of Jesus Christ.