Luke 18:1-34

Read along as Matthew guides us through the Gospel of Luke. In these verses, Jesus tells the Parable of the Persistent Widow and the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Jesus also welcomes little children to have a special place in the kingdom of God. Then he has a discussion with a certain ruler about eternal life. Finally, Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection a third time. 

Matthew Schmidt is the Pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ in the beautiful small town of Grand Haven, MI. Discover more about St. Paul's today. www.stpaulsgrandhaven.org

Transcript

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Well, friends, welcome to Bible study. Today we are going to read Luke chapter 18, and why don't we pray before we begin to read? Holy God, you sit enthroned on high, and yet you stoop to pick the needy up from the ash heap. So if any of us today are tired or weary, or have found ourselves on some kind of an ash heap, attend to us, we pray. As we study Scripture, we ask that your love would be planted in our hearts and bloom in the coming days. We pray that the good life would be readily available for each of us as we do our best to attend to you. Amen. So Luke chapter 18, then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said, In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought, and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me. And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? So Jesus tells a parable, and uh who is the judge in this parable? Nobody really, right? It's a comparison to God as judge, but God is not an unjust judge. So it's kind of like an opposite form of judge to God. And what causes the unjust judge who does not believe in a higher power, does not believe in um justice, to actually do the right thing and issue a verdict in favor of this widow who has a problem, but is underrepresented, can't afford a good lawyer, doesn't have a fair fight in this paradigm, doesn't have Torah to lean on. If this judge cares nothing of God, he's not gonna, you know, let those verses from Leviticus about supporting widows impact his verdict. What actually causes the judge to do the right thing? She was like a woodpecker. She just kept peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, pecking. And finally she wears him down and he says, This is the I gotta just get this lady out of my life, because otherwise she's gonna come and attack me. And he he does the right thing. Now you've got problems in your life. I've got problems in my life. I look around and our world has problems. God is not an unjust judge. God is a good judge. God is a fair judge. God's justice is the defining principle of what justice is. Does it feel like God is answering your prayers? Does it feel like God's justice will come true? No, I think we can't over people. No, we can answer things. Other people I think you have to your prayers have to be good. Yeah. Uh uh, I think we have to be careful, I guess. And sometimes God knows what's best for us. We don't ask for good things for ourselves. We know we think we do. I think I think you're right on to something. A lot of times our prayers are more like, bless me in the way I want to be blessed. And those prayers don't necessarily get answered the way we would like. But in this story, this widow isn't asking for an unfair or a selfish request. She's asking for the right thing to happen, and the right thing isn't happening. She doesn't say what's what's the problem. She just says she needs help. Or she thinks she needs help. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I guess you could say that. I don't know. I think it's fair to assume that um the widow has an adversary, and according to Levitical law, a widow should be supported by the community. And so to me, it's very clear that the judge is the one who may be out of line here, as the adversary is the one out of line, and Jesus is presenting a a widow that we should have compassion for. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And that's that's what I'm saying. In the in the paradigm of power structures, there's somebody on the top and somebody on the bottom. This this isn't necessarily a story that it doesn't, it almost doesn't matter what she's asking for, because the paradigm is one of this person has power, this person does not. And the person without power, the only thing she can do is be persistent. And that could change somebody's mind. Now, in the paradigm of us and God, God has power. We might not feel like we have a lot of power. Uh is Jesus saying, be persistent. He is. He's also saying you won't have to be as persistent as even this widow with God. God is more compassionate than an unjust judge. You don't have to be a woodpecker and really bother God. Listen to those set of those set of questions again. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? What's the answer to that? Will God bring justice to those of us who are crying for justice? I think he will. Sometimes it takes time though. Yes. But I mean, I would hope that she's right, but she could be able to do something unjust as well. Just because she's asking and passing that doesn't mean she's right. Let's forget about the idea that she's pestering him for something unjust. Think about yourself and cry out to God for something that is right. And I'm asking you, will God not be faithful? You've got a husband who is really struggling and it's really hard. Will God not be faithful? Yeah, I think so too. You've got a wife who's sick and needs to have surgery next week. Will God not be faithful? I know he will. And it might not be the way that I want, right? Like anything could happen, and it could break my heart, right? But I believe that God will be faithful. The opposite of faith is not doubt. Faith and doubt are dance partners. It's okay to have doubts. The opposite of faith is cynicism. Cynicism is so far beyond doubt that you officially do not trust deep in your bones that God will be faithful. You cut yourself off from God by essentially saying, I don't actually believe that this can get better. I am cynical about a lot of things in my life right now. When I look at politics, I'm pretty cynical. I'm cynical about politics. When I look at uh like you know, technology and big companies that are just they're doing well and they're they keep doing well. They really keep growing and accruing more. And uh and that's incle increasingly a select elite view of human beings, and I and I grow cynical about that. And I have to check my cynicism and ask, will God bring justice? Will God hear the cries of the oppressed? And I believe God will. I can have doubts, I can tremble, but one of the things I learned last week, Eugene Peterson, when he was 78 years old, was set to give the Carl Barth lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. Every year there's a Carl Barth festival at Princeton, and they pick one of the world's top Bart scholars to come and give a series of lectures. And so right at the end of his life, Eugene Peterson got picked to give these lectures. And Wynne Collier, who was writing his biography at that time because he was nearing his death and he was spending time with him and interviewing him and working with him, um, he he recalls talking to Eugene Peterson, who died before he could give the actual lectures, but he was working on them. Uh he said, the the older I get, the less I remember the particulars of John Calvin and Carl Barth, who he loved. He loved the classics, he loved the Reformed theologians, he loved John Calvin and Martin Luther and Carl Barth, these giants that have shaped the Western Church. He loved them. But he said at the end of his life, the older I get, the nearer to death I become, the less I remember their particulars. But the more I remember the basic thing that they had to say, which is God is big. God is really big. God is so much larger and so holy and wholly beyond us that God's time, God's plan, God's work, God's redemption is so utterly beyond us, we can hardly comprehend. And yet we we can comprehend in glimpses. We can see Jesus and see what Jesus is doing and understand this is who God is, and this general direction is the direction things will end up, i.e., the story will end well and God will win. And it might get really hairy, and there might be a crucifixion and a death and a lot of darkness, but God wins, and God is this giant force beyond us. And what does that have to do with cynicism? Cynicism is when you ultimately believe that God's not big enough to fix these problems, that the problems have gotten too big to fix, that the justice is too unjust to unwind and get better. And here, what Jesus is saying is will not God bring justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting it off? And the chosen ones think, yeah, it's been a long time, you know, a thousand years coming after David until the Messiah son of David arrives, right? Two thousand years since the time of Christ. Like, how long is it gonna take, oh God? And he says, I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith or cynicism on the earth? And I added that word cynicism as the antithesis of faith. And my hope is he will find faith. Yes, this is hard. Yes, I have doubts, yes, I have deep, profound questions, yes, I cry out every night. Like, seriously, we're gonna keep doing this. Seriously, another war, seriously, more violence, seriously, another school shooting, more children have to die. We had a woman come and talk to us last week whose child was at Sandy Hook. You know, her little boy was in class that day and had friends die. And I think about how we respond as a society when that happens, and 10% of our population just doesn't believe that it was a thing, that it was manufactured, you know, and another half of us doesn't really want to change their lives in order to prevent that from happening again. And there's really no good solution to protect our children, really? I cry out to God, Lord, have mercy. Protect our littlest ones. Are our kids 10 years from now gonna die of a school shooting? Are we done with that and past that? Or does the injustice carry on? I believe that someday it will end. That someday kids won't die anymore. We have to change. This last shooting, this is a medicated kid, but he listens to Paul and stuff. He drives from California over here. Right, his life is ruined. What did he accomplish? Yeah, he lost his life because other people are shooting off this negative stuff, right? I saw a guy working on Friday afternoon. I went to watch Reese At Hope. Yeah, they had a uh, and there was a a kid and his group from Calvin, yeah, whose mother died. This kid has been running and running and running. Yeah, he beat a person at always. Yeah, yeah, but he had just lost his mother. Yeah, he came off on that track and embraced his mother. Yeah, we can't do hard things, right? You know, we really can. We can overcome. Yeah, yeah, yep. Success. Yeah, yep, and that's that's you can be cynical. My mom died. I'm so grief stricken, and it that's okay, and you're debilitated for a long, long time. But then also you don't stay cynical forever. You can have grief, you can have sadness, you can have pain, you can have suffering, you also have faith, you also have hope, you also have trust, and you persist and you practice, and then this perfect conglomeration of of time and rehearsal and practice and energy comes together, and you perform in front of people, and you have this thing that you can give back to your mom as a gift. Yeah, look at this thing that I did for you, mom. Yeah, and raiseless bias and was talent, it was hard for the whole whole T of him going through this. Yeah, but I mean that one's just um I have a question. Yeah, it says in God um justifies chosen ones. Uh, if you're not one of the chosen ones, you ought to look. Is that what it's saying? Because Israel supposedly is the chosen ones, so everybody else on earth, shoot for yourself. I don't think he's talking about everyone else. I think he's talking to the chosen ones, and that's why he's using that language. He's talking to the chosen ones because the chosen ones have the Son of Man in front of them right now. Jesus, the incarnation of their God that they loved that chose them long ago, is standing before them right now. And he's asking them, will we find faith here? Will you trust that God can overcome? Let's say in his day, the Roman Empire? Or will you not have that faith that God's justice will come to fruition? And will you be constantly conniving and searching in your cynicism to find your own solutions, your own pathways, your own systems to get what you want? In the time of Jesus, there were people who wanted to go to war with Rome. That was like the hot button issue. Do we pick up pitchforks and battle the evil pagan empire that has conquered us, whose boot is against our throat? And God's solution to the evil pagan empire whose boot is against their throat is all right, I'll lay down here, they can put their boot against my throat. And we'll see what happens, and we'll see who wins. So he's talking to the chosen people, that's why he's using that language. He's not I think if he left this part of the world and went and talked to somebody in Canada, he would be using different language. Let's not trap Jesus in a false understanding of why he's using a language like chosen one. That's not what he's doing. They're all the Bibles, they're they're the chosen ones. The chosen ones for what purpose? To bless the world. Yeah, they are blessed to be a blessing. God creates this whole beautiful world, loves all people. Before God chooses a particular group of tribes, God creates all human beings to bear God's image. God loves all human beings. I mean, that's just the Bible, right? Then in a particular time in a particular history, God says, This people is the apple of my eye. And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna use them in this world to redeem the world. And he does. That's what the entire biblical story is about. And Jesus is the true Israelite, as he is also the son of man. And that son of man title doesn't mean the son of Abraham, it means the son of Adam. So he's two things at once. He is the fulfillment of the chosen one group of people, he's also the fulfillment of all humankind. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? And maybe you're like me and you need Eugene Peterson to remind yourself to dial back the cynicism. It's okay to have doubts, it's okay to ask deep questions, it's okay to persist with those questions day and night, and also trust that God's doing something about it. And maybe that involves you, or maybe you're totally overwhelmed and God's gonna go ahead and do it without you, and you'll reap the benefit. And that's what's happening in Jesus Christ here. Another story to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. In case some people are concerned about being the chosen one amongst the chosen people, uh, Jesus tells this to humble them. What does it actually mean to be in that group and in that category? Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. So in the ancient World, social status. Who's got the higher social status? Pharisee or tax collector? Pharisee. Why? Well, he's supposed to be a man of God. He's supposed to be a man of God. He's supposed to be a little bit more holy, right? He knows how to do the God talk thing. And what's the tax collector? Why is he not holy? Well, sometimes he's cheating. He's cheating. He lies. He's probably beat some people up in his life, shook some people down in order to get the money that they owe the person he owes money. He's operating within a broken economic system. Yeah, he he works for the wrong side, right? Those tax monies are heading up the chain to fund Caesar's empire. Okay, so we've got this Pharisee who knows how to talk do the God talk and be extra holy, and you've got this tax collector who is not a good guy. And both of them are a part of this chosen people, okay, that we were just talking about. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people: robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Think about that prayer. You know, you you just had a problem with uh aren't what does it mean that they're the chosen people and should we care about other people? And yeah, this is now uh a caricature of the wrong way to be a chosen person. I'm so glad that I'm not like the people who aren't chosen. Right? And is Jesus gonna lift this up and say, this guy's doing the right thing? So all your concerns are gonna be solved in Christ, I'm telling you. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get, proper tithe. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and he said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. I don't care what you believe, when you read this story, who which which person are you drawn to? Just on a human level. If this were a movie and one guy was a priest and he was neat and shiny and polished and always did the right thing, and had his nose high in the air, and was grateful that he wasn't like the scum other characters in the movie, and then you go from that scene to another scene, and the guy is uh he's made a bunch of mistakes, he's wearing his heart on his sleeve, he is weeping and beating his chest and saying, God, have mercy on me. I've messed up so much. Just on a human level, who are you drawn to? As a as a higher character individual, the one that admits his sins. What in the world are we doing in our churches today when we're removing the word sin? Yeah, why is that? Right? That's what I'm asking. What in the world are we doing in our society today when we're removing language of sin? We've replaced sin to make you know make room for brokenness. Oh, we're broken, but we're not sinful. Right? Well when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faithful sinners on earth? Like, seriously. I mean, read the story, and it just this is how it works. This person admits in vulnerability that they've done some pretty bad things in their life, and we're drawn to it as human beings. Imagine how much God is drawn to it if we're drawn to it, right? I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Go back to your cynicism. I'm cynical about politics, I'm cynical about AI corporations, I'm cynical about the trillionaire class. What is Jesus saying? Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted. Now I need to believe that. That the people in this world that are shiny and bright and neat and clean and hold their noses high and scoff at the peons and the little lemmings beneath them, they are not the ones who inherit the kingdom and win in the end. They are reaping their reward right now. Nice life. You've got a private infinity pool overlooking the Pacific Ocean. That's wonderful. The zombies are coming for you too, though, right? Like, I mean, come on. So, what are we doing in our society if every one of us are scratching and clawing to get ahead, to get money, to get power, to get fame, to be successful, and none of us no longer are talking about sin. Jesus has a lot to say to our world today. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted. And there's many ways I need to be humbled. Many. Okay. People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. Okay, maybe that's where the politicians got it. Kissing a baby. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them, but Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child, will never enter it. Now we read this in our world today, and we've got our own views of kids. Some people don't like kids at all, some people love kids, some people think kids are just the cat's pajamas and they're the best thing ever. We've got kind of complicated views on children. We both love children. We also aren't quite protecting our kids, as evidenced per conversation 20 minutes ago. Um, so we struggle with that. But what was it? What was a child in the ancient world? Try to forget what children are today. Ask yourself categorically, you've got Pharisees, you've got tax collectors, you've got widows, you've got children. Put those things in a pecking order. Who's the lowest? Children. Why? Because they don't contribute. They have no value. They are a burden on the family. They take and they take and they take and they take and they take. And they're cute, so their mom's not going to give up on them. But in a in a poverty-stricken world, that is a burden on a family to have a couple kids. And you are hoping the kids, you know, grow up fast enough so they can work on the farm or get a job in the kitchen, you know, or whatever. Become a human, like a become a man of age so that you can ply your father's trade or you can go out into the public sphere. In an honor-shame, first century Palestine setting, there is a public life and a private life. Children only exist in the private life. They do not go into the public sphere. There's no need for them to be out in public. And so when people begin to bring their babies and their children out into the town square, out into the public life, and ask of Jesus to publicly acknowledge them, his disciples, rightfully so, following the rules of an honor-shame society, say, uh, back up, back up, back up, back up. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Send those kids home. And how does Jesus respond? Let them come. See these sub-human children? See these less than human children? See these people who have no value to society. Let them come. Let them come. Let them come. The kingdom belongs to such as these. The people who cannot yet contribute to the kingdom, it belongs to such as these. It's just an inverse of everything we think matters. Find the poor, find the maimed, find the paraplegic, find the burden on society because they can't contribute to society. And we can come up with good ways to say that they can contribute to society because we're more enlightened. You know, they can use their brain or they can they have a nice smile, they really have value. But in the ancient world, I'm talking about when you can't work the fields because you're just too small. When you can't serve in the army, because you're just three years old, what could you do? Right? And Jesus is saying, you have immense value. In fact, you're the first to enter the kingdom. And now we take that category and we translate it to our world. He's not really talking about kids anymore. Who in our world has no intrinsic value? Who in our world cannot contribute? They're the first in line to the kingdom. In the story before, who's the one who has no value? The tax collector. He steals money from people, he does the wrong thing, he's on the wrong side. Three paragraphs ago, somebody asked, Does God care about the people who aren't the chosen ones? Yeah, that's kind of the whole point. He's using the story of chosen people in order to subvert the entire world with grace and with mercy and with love and rescue us. The rich and the kingdom of God. A certain ruler asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony. Honor your father and mother. Well, all these I have kept since I was a boy, he said. Okay, so now in this situation, we have uh a certain ruler who is a devout Jew, he follows the Ten Commandments and the Torah, he does all the right things, and he's asking Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Am I doing enough? How do I get into the kingdom? Well, all these I have kept since I was a boy, he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. When he heard this, he became very sad because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Don't finish this pause, the story's not over. We need reactions, but just realize if you cut it off here, which everyone does, everyone cuts the story here, and they're like, see, I told you, Elon, you're not getting into heaven because you haven't given it all away. Right? So you gotta read the next three sentences before we cast judgment on the trillionaire class, like I just was doing earlier, right? I'm sorry. Woe to me, I am a sinner. Uh, but what is what is so hard about this? I know some of us uh, you know, we're we are uh if you're sitting in this church, we are middle class American citizens. And we on a worldly perspective, we're fairly wealthy, you know, all of us are in our own ways. What's so hard about the command to sell it all? I think about you know, my kids. I think, well, if I sell it all, who's gonna provide for how's uh you know Eleanor gonna get to college? Who's gonna pay for their food? Everything in our society is dictated by money. What would we do if we didn't have a home or we didn't have a you know a retirement account? Well how what does that even mean to sell it all? So it's hard, right? I find out when you when you give, you get. Time is just as important as money as I'm okay at. It's what do you have to give? Yeah, I think that's part of it, is what do you have. Yeah. I mean, if I I can go home and do nothing today, or I can go help somebody today. Now that's so what do what do you what is the most important thing in your life? Yeah. This the if you go back to the question that the the young ruler asks is what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's starting with the end in mind. He's asking a question about the kingdom of God. He's asking a question of how do I get there to that place which is full trust in the God that he believes in? Union and communion with, you know, for us, it'd be the triune God, right? Salvation. How do I get there? Can I keep going down the path of doing the right thing? Jesus purposely puts in front of him a stumbling block. Okay, sell it all. And the man is sad because that is actually really hard to do. And what comes next is really important. But we have to see and kind of feel how much of a stumbling block that is. Jesus is not saying everyone sell everything in all situations. He's this is a question by a guy that's more about what must I do in order to inherit eternal life? And Jesus is going to try to teach him about the upside-down impossibility of grace. So here's what he says. Uh, hold on. So why does God use the this parable of the rich man? Right. Why does he speak on the rich man? Because now all it's all we hear is the rich don't pay enough taxes. That's all we oh, yeah. Yeah. And we are rich in different ways. Yeah. Yeah. So why did God use the rich man as an example? I think, I think because the rich man has means to purchase his way into eternal life. He is doing the right thing. There is a there is like an operative theology in the ancient world that God will bless those who are faithful. And this is the example of a guy who is doing all the right things. He's a good guy, he follows the rules, he follows the Ten Commandments, he honors his father and mother. He has not stolen things like a tax collector. He's doing the right things, and he's been blessed. And he has accrued wealth and power and influence. And he goes to Jesus, the last thing that I have not yet been able to achieve, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, sell everything. Because by selling everything, the only way to inherit eternal life is by God's own grace. And then he says to him, it's harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom. And he hold on, let's finish the story before you ask another question. Those who heard this asked, then who can be saved? Because this seems so impossible. No rich person is going to ever give it all away in order to trust that God would carry them over the finish line. That really is as hard as a camel going through an eye of a needle. And so everyone listening to the story says, then who can be saved? And Jesus replied, What is impossible with man, because that is impossible, is possible with God. And this goes back to what I was saying about Eugene Peterson, that at the end of the day, salvation itself, the saving of yourself, your neighbors, this world, all the rungs of creation, that is God's business. And what feels totally impossible to you and I is entirely possible for a God who is beyond us and good to us. In other words, you could say it's impossible for every single one of us to be saved. You cannot earn your way to heaven. You thinking by doing the right thing, by following the rules, by having enough of this or enough of that, enough faith or enough money or enough good deeds, you cannot earn your way into heaven. You earning your way into heaven is as hard as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Now he's talking about all of us. And he's not just talking about money. And we say, well, then who can be saved? And Jesus says, what's impossible with man is possible with God. I e, we're not going to save ourselves. That's never been the story. The story of the Bible is not God created human beings, bad stuff started to happen, eventually, human beings figured it out, and we engineered our way out of it and we saved the day. No, that's not the story. It's never been the story. Human beings muck it up. God stoops to attend to us, sends into this world his beloved and only son, Jesus Christ, to show us the way. And the way is this, realizing we can't do it. The way is that tax collector falling on his knees, beating his breast and saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And guess what? God loves that man, loves him, and helps him fit through the eye of a needle. Jesus replied, What is impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said to him, Uh, we uh we have left what we had to follow you. Immediately, Peter's like, We're in, right? We did it, didn't we? We left our families, we left our jobs, we left our fiancees, we left everything to follow you. Truly I tell you, Jesus said to them, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive as man will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life. Jesus tries to comfort people. Instead of correcting Peter here, he's saying, Peter, I see what you're doing. I see how hard it is. What feels impossible, God will make possible. So then what what are we doing with our lives? If this is the paradise. Paradigm. If this is how it works, what are we trying to achieve? Who are we following? What are we keeping for ourselves for a rainy day? And what are we giving away? You mentioned, well, I think it's about giving of your time and your treasure. Yes, yes, it is about that. It is about following and trusting God's grace as the methodology for salvation. And if you live a grace-shaped life, you start to look kind of like a different person than other people. You know, you don't need the infinity pool overlooking the Pacific Ocean on private land. You don't actually need that. Because God's beauty is as readily available in a national park, freely available for all human beings. Private property starts to mean well, how can I even own private property if everything belongs to God? And you start asking really profound questions about what it means to be human. Well, I care about my family, but can I care about my neighbors just as much as I care about my family? And you start asking these, if grace is what matters, why would I close off the communion table? Many, many, many churches. If the table is grace, why would we say that the tax collectors can't come, but those Pharisees come on down? No, both come, please, right? Everybody. It's gotta be everybody, and it's gotta be grace. And God is giving each person the time they need to learn how to fall on their knees, beat their own chest, and say, Okay, can't do it. You'll find your catch. Yeah. I'll be able that sometimes it's a stranger. And you know, even when he says that those who are exalted will be humbled, those who are humbled will be exalted, you know, and when he starts using this language of eye of a needle, I think about death. And I think about the radical equality with which death comes for all of us eventually. And that's hard to think about because, you know, when I think about death, it's connected to grief and the loved ones that I've watched pass away. But if I try to kind of just step back about from that and think about it as just a concept, it is the great equalizer. You know, those phrases, you can't take it with you. You know, you might do your best to legally control what happens later on. But the truth is, at some point, you're gonna stop breathing. And nobody really knows what happens next. Nobody really knows. But I believe what happens next is in God's hands. That's what I believe. I believe that what happens after death, boy, I couldn't shape that. But it's in God's hands, and when I hear these stories, I know what it is I'll be doing on my deathbed. And you know what it is? It probably complaining, probably crying a few tears, praying. Well, I think that's what we obtain. Yeah. I think right. I think that's the same kind of a thing. Give up and release. Yes. And we're ready to give up. Right. And that's what it is. It's release, isn't it? With all the people I've sat beside, there comes this moment where it it's like it is the great exhale, and it is release, and that is scary. And I will tremble when you know I tremble every time I see it. It's it's very humbling, no matter who the person is, right? Whether they're in the fanciest nursing home or whether they're in the, you know, the Medicaid-only facility, no matter who it is. It is a harrowing, humbling experience. And and I think Jesus is just, I think on a certain level he's addressing this. And then look where he goes next, as he addresses this and speaks of grace, what it means to be humbled, what it means to be exalted, how God can do the impossible, and what it means to believe in a big God who can actually bring about justice and new creation and peace and goodness. He took the twelve aside and told them, We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. Verse 32. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, they will mock him, insult him, and spit on him, they will flog him and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again. The exalted will be humbled. God will be humbled. Eugene Peterson says that towards the end of his life, all these particularities about Carl Barton, John Kelvin start to blur into one big truth that God is big and beyond us. And the other big truth is that God becomes a human being and becomes just like us, that God takes on the form of a slave, of a servant, that God, the one who is enthroned on high, stoops to pick the needy up from the ash heap himself, becomes a needy person on the ash heap. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, they will flog him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise again. And there's something in me that like gets what he's talking about here. That like, wow, in the incarnation, God becomes human and experiences the depth of what loneliness and pain and suffering and yes, death means for every one of us. Now, not all of us are going to be spit on, but some of us will. Now, not all of us are gonna be flogged, but look, many of us have, and it's horrifying. And God knows exactly what that feels like to be uh, you know, a victim of abuse, to be uh a victim of a school shooting, knows what it feels like to be uh, you know, somebody who's gone to war and had the bullet start to fly, and then you get a shrapnel wound, and it's just god-wrenchingly terrible. Knows what it feels like to be uh a prisoner of war, a captive, knows what it feels like to be uh somebody locked away in an in an ice penitentiary or in a within our penal system. Understands what it means to be on death row. God has done those things and experienced those things, knows what it feels like to be a parent who grieves the loss of your family. And he dies. He knows what it feels like to take his last breath. That's clear. All the gospels have that scene. He takes his last breath, he slips into the darkness, and on the third day he will rise again. And the disciples did not understand any of this, and so I'm kind of there too. You know, like I I think I get what he's saying, but I also don't really understand how this works. The disciples did not understand any of us, its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. Paul says, now we see as if in a foggy mirror in First Corinthians, and someday we'll see with clear eyes. I don't fully understand, but I think I get enough of it to know that the path is grace and trust that God gets the last word on all matters. And that's where that's where I put my faith. I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and as my savior. I put my faith in God who is sorting out the injustices of our world, the brokenness in my life and your life, and all our lives, and working together things for salvation, which will probably end up including the people I don't like, the people who aren't in, the enemies, the rich guys, the we really are. We really are. God's doing some heavy lifting for us. All right, friends, it's that time to close our Bibles and say thanks. Thanks be to God for all this. Grace and peace, everybody. Have a good week.