Luke 18:35-19:27

Read along as Matthew guides us through the Gospel of Luke. In these verses, Jesus continues his traveling towards Jerusalem. He stops outside Jericho and heals a blind man, then he parades through Jericho and meets a tax collector named Zacchaeus. Questions pervade these stories: What is blindness and what is true sight? Who is welcome in this Jesus movement? Who does Jesus seek? 

Matthew Schmidt is the Pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ located in the beautiful small town of Grand Haven, MI. To discover more about St. Paul's visit our website. www.stpaulsgrandhaven.org

Transcript

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Well, friends, welcome to Bible study this morning. We'll begin with prayer. We're going to read Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 35. We'll pray and then start reading. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to open up this book and to read these words, to continue on the journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem. We pray that your word would be our guide, that your spirit would be our teacher, and that the glory of Jesus would be our greatest concern. Amen. All right, Luke chapter 18, verse 35. Jesus has just predicted his death for a third time. As Jesus approached Jericho. Now where is Jericho? If we're following Jesus along, he's heading from Galilee up in the north down towards Jerusalem and Judea in the south. And there's a river, the Jordan River, that sort of connects from the Sea of Galilee down to this city, Jericho. So he's he's down south now. He's uh not far from the River Jordan. Jericho is an old, old city. I mean, it's one of those fortress cities from societies before the Jewish people had conquered this territory. You can read about the walls of Jericho in the Old Testament. Remember that? Joshua fights a battle there, and God's people march around it, tooting horns, and God causes these great walls to crumble. Okay. So he reaches this city, Jericho, which the road kind of bends from Jericho. It heads up inland and up the hills. And so Jericho, very, very low, uh, near the Dead Sea, Dead Sea, one of the lowest places on planet Earth. So you're kind of you're you're as low as you get, you're in desert type territory along a river in a salty, salty sea, and then you head from Jericho. It's, you know, if you were on pilgrimage, you would start after Jericho, you would start singing the Psalms of Ascents, which are these Psalms where uh we're climbing the stairs up to, you know, the place where heaven and earth meet, the temple, right? And so uh Jericho is we're getting close to Jerusalem. And we know we're getting close to Jerusalem because it's Luke chapter 18. I mean, he's we're over halfway through the story now. And if the big finish is in Jerusalem, we're getting closer. So as Jesus approached Jericho, this old, ancient, walled city, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. Now he's outside the city walls, we can assume. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. Another clue. Jesus is not traveling alone. He's got his twelve disciples, but the twelve disciples have gathered a crowd. And this does make sense because once you hit Jericho, there's a common road up to Jerusalem. He's not winding his way through random villages anymore. He's hit the highway. And so there's going to be a crowd of other pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for the exact same festival that they're heading towards, Passover, the most popular festival of the year. And so now there's a crowd following Jesus. Some of the crowd might be his people who want to travel with this Jesus. Some might just be other pilgrims who have kind of joined the march. All right, we're heading together. It's safer to travel in a group. There could be bandits and thieves in these hills as we start climbing the mountain, right? So you you travel with a group. There's a crowd going by. And the blind man asks what was happening. Can you sense, if he's blind, can you sense a crowd? You could feel that, couldn't you? You're sitting there starting in the morning and it's quiet, and you hear somebody tinker by in a in a wheeled cart, and you know who that guy is. It's Phil, he's gonna set up his fruit stand, and you s maybe you hear somebody else tinker by, and then all of a sudden you hear a crowd. Oh, there's a lot of people approaching. What's going on? What's all the fuss? And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he called out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. How does he know? I mean, how in the world would he know? They tell him, Jesus of Nazareth, nothing good comes from Nazareth. It's a podunk nothing town. And yet he doesn't say, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me. He says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David being this messianic title. How do you think he knew? Good guess. Is Luke just adding in some flair? That's my best guess. Gossip. Word travels. This is the prophet from up north who heals people. And at this point, there's more and more people who are poor, people who are blind, people who are beggars, talking about revolution, hoping for the Messiah to come, to bless them, to heal them, to bring them into the good life. And so when he hears it's Jesus of Nazareth, his heart sputters and and the spirit moves and he just knows who this is. And he says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And that's I mean, that's my prayer. That's my prayer every day. God have mercy on me. What does mercy mean? What is mercy? You have mercy? You have mercy in your backpack? Okay. While you're digging for that, anybody else? What is how would you define mercy? If you've got a kindergartner sitting there listening to you read this Bible, teacher, what is mercy? How would you define it? You don't know something wrong, but you can't feel that one. You don't want to come to everyone's need to. So mercy is something that somebody higher or above you or in some kind of authority over you has upon you when you've done something wrong. And you go to them and you say, I've done something wrong. Morally wrong. You make a mistake. It could be an equal person relationship or even a lesser person, and you make a mistake and you're hoping this person has mercy back towards you. For generally forgiveness-ish, yeah. Grace-ish, synonymous with mercy. Yeah. Grace is when bad. Grace is when God gives us good things that we don't deserve. Mercy is when God spares us from bad things we deserve. Blessings are when He is generous with both. God is good all the time. God is good all the time. Amen. I love that. That's an I like that definition. Yeah, that's good. Synonymous with grace. Synonymous with forgiveness. Anything else that you would add to mercy? Oh, good. Jesus is merciful. If you read like the Gospel of Matthew, you could say every single activity that Jesus does is an act of mercy. And I think the church today could reclaim what it means to embody mercy. How can we be more merciful towards our town? How can we be more merciful towards our neighbors? You know, we were talking before this began about my neighbor, your neighbor build builds a shed behind your house and it's and I grumble about it. How can I be more merciful towards him? You know? Um, it's more sensitive to what is going wrong. Yeah. And he's paying more attention because the other stuff side is a little bit all in. Yeah. And we'll look at it and think, but hearing his hearing what is happening. That's right. Yeah, and in that sense, his hearing is spiked because he's blind. He doesn't see the opulence, he doesn't see how tall the walls are around Jericho or how mighty Herod's temple is. But he hears. He hears the gossip that people are talking about. And that is that words in his ears are incredibly powerful. And then also the noises that he's experienced. He hears a crowd approaching. There must be something to do. There's feet stomping past, there's there's laughter, there's children running about. This is a group with all ages. I hear women's voices and men's voices. What kind of caravan is this? What's going on? Oh, it's Jesus of Nazareth. Wait a second. I've heard about that guy. He's not just Jesus of Nazareth. He is the son of David, and I'm gonna push in all the chips and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. What's he asking for? Blind guy, one chance to talk to Jesus as Jesus is walking by. What's he saying? Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Help me in any way you can. Help me on any of your terms. Take away this hand I've been dealt, this punishment I might be enduring. Heal me? Help me to see. He's asking all those things that we would ask for too, uh, in mercy. But those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet. Why would they rebuke him and tell him to be quiet? Don't bother him anything important to you. Isn't this weird? We think some people are more important than others. This happens like, you know, a a president walks by or a celebrity walks by and they're surrounded by people. And it's like if you reach out for an autograph for Leonardo DiCaprio, Leonardo DiCaprio's people will be like, oh, he's too busy. He's too important. Don't bother him. We really don't want to tick him off. Jesus has become this public figure. Now he's bearing the burden of being a public figure. He is a popular figure. And so he's got people around him leading the way. He's not in the front of the crowd. He's somewhere in the middle, somewhere near the back. He's having a side conversation with Peter, who still is pestering him about something that they did earlier in the morning. And he's just too important. So they rebuke a blind man from calling out to Jesus. I mean, that we do this with God, though, too, don't we? In some ways, the church has built itself like a shield around God. And we would like to say, uh, come to us first, please, and ask for forgiveness, and we'll relay your message over to the big guy, right? That's kind of how the temple is built. That's sort of what a priest does. A priest is a mediator of God's presence, and they stand between humanity and God, and you, you know, or we or we do that with saints. Oh, I'll pray to a saint instead of praying directly to God. And part of what Jesus is here to do is just tear open the curtain, tear down the walls, bring about a kind of radical uh awareness, uh a radical connection, availability. Uh you can speak directly to this Jesus. They rebuke Jesus. They did this last chapter when children get brought to him. Oh, no, no, no, not children. Don't bring the kids. That's the other reason the rebuke. It's not just that Jesus is a popular figure and he's got people around him. It's that this particular guy is not worth his time. A blind guy. Somebody so low, somebody so not important, doesn't deserve to get the face time. Just like those kids, those children earlier, or those women that are sick, these people, they're too the widow who doesn't deserve to get time in front of the judge. Right? And they don't have and I'll say we struggle to have the compassion that Jesus has, you know. It's because somebody sinned and disbinded anyway, right? Yeah. It it it is weird to think, but it you're right, they think that way. Yeah. So especially, you know, don't you don't need to talk to you don't deserve. Go to the temple first, get yourself right, then come talk to this Jesus, you know. But uh again, Jesus wants to, he's here to to seek and save the lost. He's here to find and gather the weak and the poor and the afflicted back into the fold. I'm guessing I probably would have been like those disciples or those crowds back then and missed missed the mark plenty of times, but I'm I'm guessing Jesus um Jesus wants to be able to be spoken to by this guy. And he wants to have FaceTime with him. Right. That's a great point. So here's here's the story. He keeps crying out. He does not allow the crowd to tell him, oh no, no, no, no, this isn't who God is. He is downright determined to ask God for mercy, which is exactly what the story of the widow was all about. Ask God for mercy. Don't let your friend tell you God doesn't care about you, just deal with it. No, ask for mercy, keep asking for mercy until your voice cuts through the noise, and Jesus hears your prayer. But those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, What do you want me to do for you? Did anybody in the crowd expect this? He stops, he orders them to bring this voice that's shouting to him, and then he asks this man that's shouting, What do you want? And I'm sure there's plenty of people in the crowd who are like tired, who are thirsty, who don't have a penny in the bank, and all of a sudden they're getting jealous, like, wait a second, I could have asked whatever I want. You know, like he gets to go what do you want? What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks this blind man, Lord, I want to see. He replied. Jesus said to him, Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you. Faith, trust, your trust has healed you. You're so readily open to what God is doing in this world, so persistently praying this, so believing that this is possible, that this Jesus can heal you, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. So the parade continues. The parade gets bigger. The crowd is excited. It happened again! Here we go, another one. I mean, it's almost unbelievable. It it's dramatic, isn't it? Do you trust it? It's okay not to. It's okay to hear a story like this and have a little bit of doubt. Like, well, that's never worked quite for me. Like, do I do I do I not have enough faith? Yeah, that's the other thing. We we believe it, but we weren't there. And that's pretty miraculous in and of itself. And also it's okay, you know, plenty of these followers, they dance between believing this stuff and doubting this stuff. That's a dance. They're not opposites of each other. The opposite of faith is fear. If you read this and you're afraid of it, if you read it and it causes fear to enter your heart, then you're at the beginning of wisdom. But if you read it and doubt enters your heart, there's a dance there, and that's okay. That's okay. And if you read it and today you're inspired, that's pretty great too. Yeah. There are people who add to a paper and pretty bad. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing you would think. Yeah, show them all. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There's there's a lot of different reactions to this, Jesus. Here, you know, the the blind man is asking for mercy. He is asking for something. And and Jesus zeroes in on him and he gives him exactly what he wants. Understanding that the question itself is coming from a place of trusting that God can radically change his life. That this isn't a punishment from God, his blindness. This is just there's something deformed about the formation of his life, and God can reform his life, right? God can recreate his life, and there's this wide open, bold trust in that. Yeah, and some people they see it, they see the gift be given and then they praise. That is the proper response. We say thank you and we get excited. It's okay for the church to say amen, thank you, and get excited. Now, there's thousands of other blind people in the world that haven't been healed yet. And so it's also entirely possible to read this or to watch that happen and say, Oh my word, but what about the rest of us? You know? Rome is still in power and this blind man has received his sight. Does that matter? It matters. It totally matters, right? Step by step, day by day, person by person, molecule by molecule, God is recreating the world. And we can get mad that it's not all fully restored and redeemed, and shalom is everywhere all at once today, or we can see the tiny little miracles in our lives. I'm sure that you could see small miracles in your life. That's what Hillary and I were talking about yesterday. It was her 40th birthday. And it was a different kind of birthday this year than other years. She had a lot of pain last night and uh maybe did too much trying to go to church, trying to go to a birthday party, maybe just pushed it too much. And we get to the end of the day, and and it's just like, you know what we want? Like if we had a chance to pull our chair right up next to Jesus, do you know what we want? We just we want ordinary days. We want to be able to cook dinner together at night. We want to be able to just go to the beach with our kids and play with them. You know? And and we'll get there. It just takes time. Small miracles. It not everything has to be a big, gigantic, mighty healing, you know? But we do hope for some ordinary days, that'd be a gift. Yeah. Yeah, she's definitely on the mend. Definitely getting better. It is. Yeah. Yep. So Jesus said to him, Receive your sight, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. And so I imagine this crowd that walks by him has swelled a little bit. A couple more people who knew this blind guy are impressed. Now they're going to enter Jericho as a big band of people. Jesus as Entered Jericho and was passing through. The man, a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was. What was it that Jesus just gave this man? What was his want? The blind man? The blind man says, I want to see. Now we're going to get another story about another guy who wants to see. Is he legally blind? No, but he's a tax collector. He wanted to see who Jesus was. He wanted to see who Jesus was. He's starting from a different place. The blind man who was blind saw who Jesus was, calls him the correct title, Jesus, son of David, Messiah. And then Jesus says, What do you want? And he says, I want to see. He doesn't ask, I want to see who you are. He already knows. He already knows. He wants to see God's beautiful creation. He wants to see a sunset. He wants to see the sunrise. He wants to see his mom again. He wants to see those beautiful flowers that bloom in the summertime. Now this Zacchaeus, what does he want to see? He wants to see who Jesus was. But because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. What will he see? If he wants to see Jesus, what will he see by climbing a tree? Is it just literal? He wants to literally see this guy? He wants to put eyes on him? Check him out. See what color his hair is. Yeah. He wants to see what all the fuss is about. He moves and shakes with some powerful people. He wants to see uh, you know, a celebrity, maybe. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. Verse 5, when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, This is great. Who sees who first? He climbs a sycamore tree, wanting to see Jesus, to get out over top of the crowd, and he doesn't see him. Why? Because he comes up from behind, right underneath him, and Jesus looks up and sees him first. That's not a coincidence. This is what it means when we turn towards God. I mean, you you go back to the story of the two sons, the prodigal son. When the prodigal son hits rock bottom, he has been going in his own way and in his own direction and his own life for a long time. When he finally decides to stop and turn back home, who spots who first? Does he see his home first? Does he see his father first? Or does his father see him first? His father sees him first while he was still a long way off. But because he decided to turn, the father sees him, runs out to meet him, puts a robe on him and a ring on his finger and calls to kill the fatted calf, calls for a party. This is how God operates with you and with me. If we just try to see, if we just try to turn and look, watch out, God is gonna seek and find us before we even know it. Zacchaeus is thinking he's gonna get a great view of Jesus from up high, and he's gonna be able to process that, see him from a distance, keep it safe, maybe be in control of the situation, right? And instead, Jesus comes up from underneath him, spots him first, and actually does something that Zacchaeus does not expect. Let's read what happens. He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. Jesus calls him by name, right? Exactly. Tells him to come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. He makes the turn towards God. God rushes into his life from underneath and then doesn't allow him to just be a perceiver, a a person seeing God from a safe distance. Instead, God rushes into his life, Jesus rushes into his life and says, I'm coming over, man. I'm gonna stay with you. I'm gonna dwell with you. Let's break bread together. You're gonna host me. I'll sleep in in your top bunk. You sleep in the bottom bunk. I mean, is this not what he signed up for, it's not what he expected. And Jesus just invites himself into this guy's life. He sees an opening. I think this is how it works for people today. Exactly like this. Uh the hearts of many are growing cold. But a few hearts crack open a smidgen and say, maybe, maybe there's a better way, a more merciful way, a more kind way. They crack open a little, hoping to see some mercy, hoping to see some love, and God takes that opportunity and floods their heart with God's presence, goes way beyond what they're expecting, and says, Yeah, I'm with you. I'm gonna dwell with you, I'm gonna go over to your house today, we're gonna have some supper, I'm gonna live with you for a while. I'll let you host me, but really I'm the host because I'm inviting myself in, you know. So we came down at once and welcomed him gladly. He takes the risk. I think that's pretty cool. He takes the risk. He just wants to see him, ends up with this opportunity to host him, and he welcomes him gladly. That's the response. Verse 7, all the people saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. The people don't like it. Why don't the people like it? Yeah, he's a bad guy. Who likes a tax collector in this world? Uh not IRS today. Who likes a tax collector in this ancient first century Mediterranean society? Nobody. Why? What is a ta how does the tax system work? Yeah, I mean, he's like the mob, right? He he is employed by some Roman official in order to tax people. And he probably is a local type person that knows Jericho, that has relationships with these business people, and now he can leverage these relationships and tax them with the authority of Rome behind him, so they gotta pay, right? But then he taxes them more than they need because he's gotta skim some off the top and keep it for himself. And he gives money to Rome. And he's he's doing great, he's kicking butt. In a world where let's say the poverty rate is 80%, he's the he's in the top two percent wealthy, you know. So he he is doing well, and people are grumbling the way they would grumble today, right? Imagine if uh, you know, who's who's like a politician that like Bernie Sanders, right? Bernie Sanders is this popular politician today. He gives the same speech everywhere he goes, which is about the the wealthiest 1% are not paying their fair share in taxes, right? And and he's got all these people, this populist movement behind him, that is saying at least some guy with some power is sticking up for the little guy. And imagine if Bernie Sanders just becomes best friends with Mark Zuckerberg, you know? Would we love it? We would grumble, we would be like, come on, you're no different than the rest of the politicians, you know. And so people are muttering behind Jesus' back. The same people who are following him and excited about him and see him as an opportunity for themselves. You know, I wonder if the blind guy mutters. You know, is he one of the people muttering? He gets healed, he's a part of the movement, he's in, Jesus sees even me. Wait, you're gonna see him too? Are you kidding me? I mean, I get me, like I needed it. He doesn't need it. So the people saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. And we read it today, and we're like, of course he did. Of course. If he's gonna seek and save the lost, then he's gotta go to the rich and the poor. Then he's gotta be friends with Zacchaeus and the blind guy. He has to. And and in our purity culture, and there's purity culture on kind of both sides or all sides, however, you we just don't see those, we don't want those lines blurred. Hospitality and mercy for that side too, or that team too, or that type of person too, get out. Yeah, this is it, man. Jesus loves everybody, and he's gonna seek and save everybody, wants to. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, again, sight, look, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. What? I mean, are you serious? To the people who are muttering, he's gonna pay him back. To the people who he has wronged, he's gonna pay him back. Just cuts everything he owns in half. Take my house, cut it in half with a sawzall, let anybody live in this side. I'll just live in this side, and then I'm gonna pay everybody back. I mean, what word do you use to describe this? It's it's a miracle. It's radical generosity. You know? What was that, Jerry? It's transformation, it's a total change. This guy has been accruing and accruing and accruing and accruing wealth, and then he encounters the radical love of Jesus, and something clicks into place, and he realizes all my wholeness could come from this source over here, and everything I have been starving for is met only in him, and he can just give the rest away. Whoa. Whoa. Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. I mean, could you imagine if that politician met with Zuckerberg and Zuckerberg was like, Okay, stop, everybody. I'm gonna give half of Meta to the poor. A two trillion dollar company. I'm gonna give a trillion to the poor. And then I'm gonna start paying back every little company I swallowed up along the way. Instagram, you can go and be a company again without me. I'm gonna demonopolize my whole system. Anyone who I stompled on or trampled on or took advantage of, I'm gonna pay them back. This isn't even what we're asking for, right? In our populist moment today. We're not even that. This is a kind of transformation. I'm telling you guys, it's better than any system human beings can cook up. This isn't just like a rich guy paying his fair share in taxes. This is radical generosity and people helping people by the Spirit of God. And this is what God wants of humanity. That people just are radically generous towards each other. That the rich, when they've been blessed, are a blessing to others. That's the primary identity of Israel in the Old Testament. God will bless them in order to be a blessing for the world. Now, Zacchaeus has been blessed, and he's gonna be a blessing to the whole city of Jericho and to all the other businesses he's harmed. Whoa. Whoa. And Jesus says to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. We talk about salvation in the name of Jesus Christ as the Christian church, and we immediately talk about heaven. Salvation is your soul being saved when it goes to heaven. How do you define salvation from this story? What does salvation mean in Zacchaeus' life in this example? Everything we've been talking about. Salvation is a radical change in this man's life. Jesus enters in and dwells with him, and he just before that even happens, then he says, I'm gonna give half of it away and I'm gonna pay back all the debts and I'm gonna change. Salvation is a drastic transformation of character. It it mat does it impact the lives of other people? Does does Zacchaeus's salvation impact the lives of society around it? Yeah, absolutely. Salvation is not someday Zacchaeus will go to heaven because he did the right thing here. No, no, no, no, no, no. Salvation is like God's justice is executed now in this town, in this neighborhood, to that cousin he wronged, to that business he hurt. Lives are changed. I mean, hundreds of lives are gonna be impacted because he is being saved in the name of Jesus. Right? Salvation is so much more, so salvation is about going to heaven. Yeah, sure. It's about that. It's also about your life being changed now, today. Salvation has measurable good that happens today in this world. And I think, you know, if the church is going to be a place of salvation and be a place of mercy, then we need to figure out how to be on the forefront of this kind of transformation. Are we a place that proclaims Jesus in such a way that people encounter this Jesus, are transformed by his love, know that they are beloved, know that they belong, are so safe and secure in this Jesus, so well forgiven and healed and loved by this Jesus, so seen and known by this Jesus, that all the other stuff that we think matters just doesn't quite matter as much. And we're able to be more generous and more kind and more fair, and it measurably moves in our neighborhood and in our midst. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. Hmm. Blessed to be a blessing. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And who is Jesus seeking, and who is Jesus saving who are the lost? In the last couple stories, it's children who don't matter, and he lifts them up. It's it's a widow and he lifts her up, it's a blind beggar, and he lifts him up, and it's the richest guy in Jericho. And that guy swallows a humble pill, knocks himself down a few notches, and Jesus lifts him up. Whoa. Alright, chapter 19, verse 11, a story. While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable. So the crowds gathered, and he's got this opportunity to teach a little through storytelling. Because he was near Jerusalem, and the people thought that the kingdom was going to appear at once. Like maybe we're going to get to Jerusalem and bam, heaven is going to be opened, and everything is going to be great. Maybe Zacchaeus is thinking this too. Maybe he's like, okay, I'll give it all away now because the end of the world is happening. I'm not going to, you know, God's going to solve the new age, it's all going to happen, bam, like this. And so Jesus can sense the hunger for the new age and the messianic age. And so he's going to tell a story. He said, A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. Now a minas was about three months' wage. Think about that. Three months' wage. Okay. So he calls his ten servants and gave them three months' wage. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. Now, if he's giving you a three-month advance on your wages, you're guessing he might be gone three months, right? And he's going to come back and he's going to say, put this money to work, build something with what I'm giving you. What are the people going to do with the wages that they've been given in advance? Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king. Can you tell that he's talking about Israel? Right? God blesses Israel and says, I'm gonna give you blessing. Now put this blessing to work. But the second God leaves them, I think we could put this money to work in our own ways and do our own things. I don't know if should we send a message and say we're done with that king over there and we'll just do, you know, what we want. His subjects hated him, sent a delegation after him, saying, We don't want this man to be our king. He was made king, however, and the king returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came back and said, Sir, your minna has earned ten more. Okay, well done, my good servant, his master replied, Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities. Whoa. The second came and said, Sir, your minna has earned five more. His master answered, You take charge of five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your minna. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. And his master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew did you that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my money on deposit so that when I came back I could have collected it with interest? And the then he said to those standing by, Take this minna away from him, give it to the one who has. ten minas. Sir, they said he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more to everyone who has more will be given. But as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. How do you like this story? What are you hearing in a story like this? The guy in charge who is the future king gives a blessing to his servants and says put it to work. The second he leaves seven out of the ten don't put it to work. They send a messenger saying yeah we're out well you're not our king anymore. But he is the king. The other three kind of put it to work. One tenfold earns you know ten times the money one five times the money one one time the money. The one time money guy what did he do? He took the blessing and buried it. He did nothing with it out of fear. He was afraid. So he didn't want to do anything. So he wraps it in cloth and he hides it in his house or he buries it in the backyard thinking when the king comes back at least I won't have neglected the gift. And the king says yeah that you you neglected it. You could have at least put it in the bank and I could have gotten some interest on this. You did nothing to the blessings that I've given you. If I've blessed you to be a blessing you blessed no one he didn't he operated out of fear not faith right so the seven literally stole the money and then disowned the king and they get killed in the end is that fair it sounds pretty harsh. We don't like it, right? They're called a sin. So if they want the flame instead of taking a flink I think does anybody think that the seven who disown the guy who gave them three months wage and get killed is that righteousness or is that justice, excuse me? Did they deserve to die? No? Maybe there's two ways that people interpret this parable and we'll try to unpack the two alternate ways. A clue to that kind of interpretation is that um the king expected the person to earn interest. Torah says you're not supposed to even earn interest on debts, right? So interest is kind of forbidden in in the God economy as defined by Torah. So what if Jesus isn't talking about himself as king what if he is talking about Caesar? What if he's actually talking about the Roman Empire and he's saying this is how the empire works the emperor gives money to people and if they kick butt and take names they get more here have ten cities. Only an emperor could give 10 cities to someone and to the people who operate with fear or disown the emperor off with their heads and if you're listening to that you might think I don't want to participate in that kind of system and it it actually kind of sounds like capitalism on a certain level. Now you've benefited so I'll keep working with you. You've earned it you've risen to the top the rest of you you don't matter you have no value. You don't produce right and so it might be that Jesus is exposing the economics of the day and it doesn't sit well with us and it didn't sit well with them. And everybody listening might think yeah are you going to you know turn over that system too because we don't want the rich to get richer and the poor to be killed right there's another way to interpret it though and that's that this is Israel and God. And God has blessed Israel and a big portion of Israel throughout Israel's life read the Old Testament just doesn't share the blessing they pursue their own version of blessing. They disown the name of the Lord and does God have every right to then disown them you know and to those who do well with the gifts that God has given them does he bless them with more? Maybe and so those are kind of the two ways that people interpret this parable and I'll just say I I don't always know what to make with the story like this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah equal opportunity every single human being is born into God's world has breath in their lungs you know has the opportunity to be a human being that can you know return live live in a way that understands all of life as a gift you know yeah right right yep yeah so those are the kind of the two ways um yeah closing closing sentence um stories like this are meant to open something in us and if it opens in you something that feels uncomfortable then maybe that's what this story is about. And if it opens with you something that says I you know I have been given gifts and I want to serve God with those gifts then let this story mean that for you. And in either of those directions I would say trust the Spirit to kind of guide you into a parable like that. Grace to you and peace. Hope you have a great week