Life Project Blog

Luke 12:54-59

This title ought to be good for at least 100 extra “views” today, but sadly, those viewers will be disappointed, because I have no juicy End Times nonsense to share with you…

Oh yes; good blogging, but I’m not desirous of changing the meaning of Scripture to get a few ‘views’…

As we have seen for quite some time now, Jesus has established a pattern of teaching the disciples, and then teaching the same basic thing to the crowds, and here is another example. The things Jesus has been teaching in this chapter so far have been to the disciples only, or in the case of the Parable of the Rich Fool, while spoken to the crowd, was directed to the disciples. Now, Jesus turns to the crowd and sums up for them what He has been trying to teach the disciples.

They are able to discern many things in the physical world around them; He uses a couple of examples of how they might come to understand signs in the weather. Many of them are probably pretty good at predicting changes in weather; all you need to do is to notice its little subtleties. Yet how many bother to pay attention to the spiritual signs all around them to discern what is going on right in their midst?

As we have gone through 12 chapters of Luke’s narrative, we’ve also come across the signs, over and over in fact. Jesus has been travelling around giving sight to the blind, health to the sick, He has driven out demons, He has made the lame walk, and He has preached the Good News to the poor: All of this has been in fulfillment of the prophets as the people knew full well.

“Give us a sign” they kept asking Him: How many signs did they need?!

Just one more…

In 12:57-59 He uses an analogy of a person who has wronged someone and been notified that the person is suing them in court. Jesus’ advice is that they should quickly reconcile with their legal adversary; we would call this entering into settlement negotiations, so that they might settle the case out of court, for whenever you go to court, anything can happen, and the judge might toss you into jail until you repay your judgment creditor in full, for that was the practice in those days…

In the analogy, the appearance of Jesus on the scene is the sign of the beginning of the last age before God judges the world. The people cannot deny that they have sinned before God and the time has come when they must either be reconciled with God or await trial before Him on the last day Jesus’ advice is that they repent and receive the grace He has to offer. How do they do that?

Simple: Follow Him.

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Luke 12: 49-53

We continue with Jesus’ conversation with the disciples uninterrupted from the last section. Recall that Jesus has been telling them not to worry about the affairs of this life, for they have a vastly higher calling. He has already told them they shouldn’t worry about their physical needs or much of anything other than God’s purpose; not even persecution. This text reintroduces the idea of persecution to the discussion, albeit indirectly, and is quite controversial in certain circles to this day. How will we understand this text?

To be honest, most of our perceptions of it will probably develop based entirely upon our general theological approaches. If you tend toward a ‘liberal’ approach to theology, you will see it one way, and if your approach is more ‘conservative’ you will see it the other way. If you are like me and you really can’t stand those labels… keep reading!

Oh, why do I dislike those terms? I dislike them because in theology as in politics, those labels are applied to thinking that is the exact opposite of what the labels mean… but alas, that’s a discussion for another time.

If we take this passage in its context, always a wise move, Jesus is telling them that there will soon be a time when there will be a significant divide within society that is based upon which side you are on: You are either a follower of Christ, or you are not. Of course this is why I mentioned the two camps above: the first will disagree with my statement and burst into a rousing chorus of “All you Need is Love” and the other will burst into a rousing shout of “Repent or Perish”.

Both are right, and both are wrong; we must think before we react.

In 12:49, Jesus says that He has come to bring fire to the earth, and that He wished it was already kindled. Of course is a metaphor here, for after His death and resurrection, He will unleash the Holy Spirit on the earth, and the earth will react to Him: Many will receive grace, while many others will react with violence against the message. This violent reaction, seem throughout Acts, is called persecution, which Jesus warned about in 12:1-12; it’s the whole point of this larger section we’ve been going through in this chapter.

In the rest of this section (12:50-53) He is simply reinforcing the divisions that will result between those who receive the Gospel and those who reject it, and as we all know, those same kinds of divisions exist to this very day.

What should we say about all of this? How will we react to it?

Our response is to be the response of love, not condemnation, but our love must not be so blind that we cannot comprehend the fact that not everyone will receive it, for in fact, most probably will not. After all, the servant is not greater than the Master, and this world nailed our Master to a cross!

Luke 12:35-48

Jesus is still talking to the disciples; the scene has not changed from last time. Having introduced the Kingdom to the conversation, Jesus now moves further along with three parables that deal with His future return to judge all. You will no doubt recognize the parallels here between these verses and Matthew 25.

The first of these parables (12:35-37) deals with servants who await the return of their Master from a wedding banquet. They know he will return, but they don’t know when, so they keep themselves ready to jump into action the moment he returns; they are always ready for him.

The second parable (12:38-40) uses the illustration of a thief in the night; if the home owner knows the thief is coming, he would be ready to ward him off. Likewise, the loyal servant must be ready for the Master at any time on any day, for he knows not when the Master will return, for the Master will return when no one expects him to do so.

In verse 41 Peter asks a question that Jesus doesn’t exactly answer; certainly He didn’t answer very clearly. Instead He tells another parable, this time about a servant who is the manager of the Master’s estate. In that sense, he is responding to Peter, considering the role that Peter and the others would play in the early church, and by extension, it is also quite relevant to those today who find themselves serving as leaders in the church.

So there aren’t any misunderstandings, when I say ‘serving as leaders in the church’, I don’t necessarily mean holding offices in a formal church structure. I mean anyone who is serving in a leadership role, including those who teach or inspire others… such as authors of Christian blogs, for instance.

In the parable, (12:42 ff.) Jesus makes it clear that a servant, such as you or me, who is given the position of manager (steward is another word) over the possessions of the Master, must be diligent to work in the Master’s interests at all times. If he or she does so, then they will be richly rewarded. But if they do not because of laziness, or if they abuse the Master’s property or servants, they will be the most severely punished when the Master returns.

As in the first two parables, the message is that we, the servants of Jesus, must be diligent and ready to receive His return 24/7, for we do not want to be caught napping when he returns.

This may seem a bit abstract to you, or it may seem a little unclear as to how to put this into practice, but fear not, for the subject will come back again before Luke has finished the narrative and all should be clear before we are done. If this sort of teaching seems hard to you who know already how the story ends, just imagine how bewildered the disciples must have been when they heard all of this for the first time!

Luke 12:27-34

Now we continue with Jesus’ remarks to His disciples from last time. For best results, you should have read the previous post before going further.

Once again Jesus uses an example from nature to illustrate His point, this time it’s the flowers and grasses of the fields. God dresses them magnificently, God provides all they need; how much more will He provide for you!

Don’t worry about what you will eat, drink or wear, for the “pagan world” is concerned with these things. God knows what you need so seek His Kingdom, and He will see to your earthly needs as well (12:27-31). This is all familiar territory for us; we’ve read this a thousand times… ho-hum.

Hold on before you discount this familiar theme, there’s a shift coming…

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (12:32-34)

Did you catch that first sentence? God has been pleased to give us His Kingdom!

This is a game-changer; we have His Kingdom, and that renders the things, cares and worries of this world essentially irrelevant, at least as far as God is concerned. Oh sure, He’ll see to our needs, but we aren’t in this world for a party or to be rich and famous; we have something much better in store. So Jesus says they should sell their possessions and give to the poor, and to place their treasure in the Kingdom where nothing bad will happen to it. For where our treasure is, so will our hearts be.

Did you see what I just did? If you didn’t, don’t feel bad, I manipulated the wording as most do, so you probably didn’t notice, but I attributed the “hard” parts to “them” and the good stuff to “us”. Of course I did that because we don’t want to hear what He is really saying… Let’s try that again:

We don’t need all the stuff of this world anymore, so Jesus is telling us to sell our possessions, give to the poor and place our treasures in Heaven (Kingdom) for where our treasure is, so will our hearts be also.

So dear reader, how does that sound?

Yes, I can see my ‘approval ratings’ falling like a brick! Remember the story of the rich young ruler? Jesus told him to do this same thing, and he went away “sad”. We love to take that story and use it to criticize others, the rich in particular, but here He tells His disciples to do this, and… are we disciples too?

Feeling sad or just irritated with me?

If you look at your Bible, it may appear that Jesus is finished with this subject because there is another one of those subheadings after this, at least there is in the NIV. Yet once again, Jesus may have paused to take a breath after this, but He didn’t pause for more than that; He’s just getting warmed up!

Luke 12:1-12

Having just been with a bunch of Pharisees over lunch, Jesus and the disciples are with a crowd that has gathered; a crowd of several thousand. Before He addresses the crowd, Jesus shares a warning with the disciples, a warning that they will be tempted by persecution to become the kind of hypocrites so often found amongst the Pharisees.

Needless to say, Jesus warns His disciples to resist this temptation and couples the warning with reassurance that God will remain with them. In the first paragraph, He assures them that every hypocrisy of their accusers will be exposed, that nothing will remain hidden. The schemes, the plots, the evil… will all become known, and they will be vindicated.

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. (12:4-5)

Here, Jesus seems to be telling the disciples to take a long view of things, to look beyond their earthly existence into eternity. Those who will one day persecute them can only affect the present; the worst thing they can possibly do is to kill someone. But physical death is not the end of the story; it’s only the end of the beginning of the story, for there is an eternity to follow this life. The One to fear is the One who can throw us into hell. Yet He will bring us into glory instead, as Jesus indicates in the next two verses as He tells them how valuable they are to God who reigns supreme.

In 12:8-10 Jesus urges them to remain faithful to Him under severe physical pressure, for the faithful who do not deny Him before men will be protected; they will be saved, and those who reject Him will be condemned. They should not even be concerned for what to say, for when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will give them the words they need, and will sustain them through trials. Later, as Luke tells the story of those disciples in Acts, we see that they heeded these warnings and that as a result many more came to salvation as a result. Yet I can’t help but wonder what they were thinking at the moment Jesus uttered these words Sadly, Luke doesn’t tell us, for right about then someone from the crowd shouts an interesting request, and Jesus turns to address them…